Laurie McKenna
Born: July 7, 1963
In 2002, Laurie McKenna moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Bisbee, Arizona. Laurie is a cross disciplinary artist whose work examines class, labor, and abuse of power. Laurie combines and distills US history, personal experience, and bereft and dispossessed cultural narratives.
Laurie has a BFA in filmmaking from Mass College of Art. She is the Executive Director of the nonprofit arts cooperative Central School Project in Bisbee, Arizona.
EDUCATION
1998 BFA in Filmmaking, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts
1985 -1987 Studio for Interrelated Media, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts
1981-1983 Theatre/Philosophy, Hampshire College, Hadley, Massachusetts
BOARDS AND ORGS
2016 - present - Member of Freeport Mc Mo Ran Community Partnership Panel
2016 -2021 - Board member Bisbee Arts and Humanities Council
2016 - 2021 - Liason to Arts and Culture District Steering Committee
PUBLICATIONS
2020 Luther Price Memorium Millenium Film Journal Nos 71 72 : Crisis
2017 feature article and cover of Industrial Work - the Industrial Workers of The World magazine
2017 The Cochise County Historical Journal - Rosa McKay article and artwork
2011 Ampersand Journal, Bisbee, AZ
2002 Regent Press- poetry anthology : An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind
2003- 2005 Zine: MULE published by Brodecky Moore, Bisbee Arizona- poems in 8 issues
RESIDENCIES
1986 Visiting Artist: performance art & film at Atelier Kramer, Universität Kunst Kassel, Germany
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 April - December The Undesirables Arizona Historical Society Museum - Resilience Exhibition , Tucson, Az
2019 Feb- March - The Undesirables Tohono Chul Park Gallery , Tucson, Az
2018 August - The Undesirables Cornelius Projects, San Pedro CA
2017 July - The Undesirables Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ
2013 Rock Paper Fence, Migrant Center, Agua Prieta, MX- pop up gallery show
2012 Rock Paper Fence, Spirit Gallery, Bisbee, Arizona
2006 Know Your America 2, Bisbee Clay Gallery, Bisbee, Arizona
2008 Memory of Water Series of Porcelain Tiles, Bisbee Clay Gallery
Film collaboration- subject/performance
(X)trACTION media collective project: work by 5 artist screening program, premiered Jan 2022
Bisbee '17 Directed by Robert Greene
The Undesirables project documented and featured within the non fiction narrative
about the Bisbee deportation. participated as a re-enactor.
AFFILIATIONS
Dec 2015- present Executive Director Central School Project Artists Coop and Arts Center
2003-2015 Studio member Central School Project Artist Coop and Arts Center Bisbee, AZ
2012-2015 President of Central School Project and Arts Center Bisbee, AZ
2003- 2010 Represented by Bisbee Clay Gallery Bisbee, AZ
GRANTS/AWARDS
2022 Aggregate a s officially accepted into the U of A archive, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
2021 Project Creosote stART grant for - Arts Foundation of Tucson and Southern Arizona 2021 Awardee The PandemiDiarios on the Border micro-grant program, facilitated by the Confluencenter for
Creative Inquiry at the University of Arizona, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
2021 Bisbee Arts Commission
2019 Bisbee Arts Commission
2018 Arizona Commission on the Arts- Artist Research and Development grant for video and performance work on The Undesirables.
2017 Bisbee Arts Commission- video film grant for Undesirables
1998 School Association Trust Fund Award
1985 Outstanding Student Award, Massachusetts College of Art
CURATORIAL/ PRODUCER
Programming Lead at Central School Project 2015- present
Solid State Film and Video Show 1997 Coolidge Corner Theater Brookline Mass
Eventworks 10 Boston MA 1987 - Co-Producer and Curator of 5 week (18 events) Media Arts Festival
Artists: Jack Smith - performance and film screenings, Carolee Schneeman; performance, screening and workshop, Linda Montano: performance and workshop,Larry Wildman Fischer, Howard Zinn, Barbara Krueger- SIM Info Symposium
SCREENINGS
X)trACTION X) Aggregate Harun Farocki Institut Berlin Germany July 29, 2022
X)trACTION Aggregate Cornell Cinema Cornell NY March 7, 2022
(X)trACTION Aggregate January 7 2022, Central School Project, Bisbee AZ
Beast- Showcase Fatale Show- - video Can't Swim Can't Fly recut Central School Project Bisbee AZ Nov 2017
Women of Light and Shadow Show- video - Steel toed Boots recut Central School Project Bisbee AZ Oct 2016
16th annual Mix Fest Steel toed Boots Anthology Film Archives Boston, MA Jan 2001
Twilight World: Super-8 Psychotica & Erotica (of the female kind)
No Festival Required Part 1 at the Phoenix Art Museum 2002
Modified Arts 407 E. Roosevelt Phoenix, AZ 85004 July 28th, 2002
Robert Beck Memorial Cinema at Collective Unconscious 145 Ludlow, NYC, NY Feb 12th, 2002
Cinematheque Brighton, UK Oct 25th, 2001
Telluride Experimental Cinema Exposition Telluride, CO Oct 2001
Mini-Cine Shreveport, Louisiana March 31st, 2001
Experiments in Motion Bisbee, AZ October 29, 2000
Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archives Berkeley, CA August 22, 2000
Mass College of Art Film Society Boston, Ma November 1999
Robert Beck Memorial Cinema NY, NY July 3, 1999
Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater
PS 122 NY, NY September 18, 1998
Jacques Boston, MA December 1998
Coolidge Corner Theatre Boston, Ma May 1998
Mobius Gallery Boston, MA 1998
White Elephant Gallery Boston, MA 1997
Jacques Boston, MA December 1997
Eventworks Festival Mass College of Art - SCAMP - Boston, Ma May 1997
Faces with Eyes -The Middle East Central Sq , Cambridge Cambridge MA October 1996